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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25955677">No Profits Lost</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImfictionWriting/pseuds/ImfictionWriting'>ImfictionWriting</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Lucifer (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Another way to get to Bracelet Bros, Dan Espinoza &amp; Lucifer Morningstar Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV) Devil Reveal, Lucifer Morningstar (Lucifer TV) Wing Reveal, Lucifer hates Dan, Medical Inaccuracies, Prophets, Prosopagnosia, Season/Series 02, Synesthesia, again not really, but not really, but then he doesn't, dan has a bad day</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:14:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,856</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25955677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImfictionWriting/pseuds/ImfictionWriting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You know how some people can simply tell that someone is lying?  Or take one look at a person and know they are an alcoholic?  Put together the blood shot eyes, skin color, appearance of veins, teeth...”   Dan looked up to see the devilman nodding.  “Well I do that, but before I even think about it all I just interpret that as various levels of, ...monsterousness.”<br/>Lucifer let out a fast quick laugh of incredulity.  “Monsterousness.  That's...”  Preposterous.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>110</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No Profits Lost</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Lucifer TV Show Characters not mine. Originals are. Just having fun.</p>
<p>    All constructive criticism will be thoughtfully considered with a great deal of thanks in advance.<br/>Please tell me of any and all oopsies. I do hope someone finds this entertaining.  Medical inaccuracies abound.<br/>And lots of swearing.  But it's justified.  Dan had a really bad day after a really bad year and the Ativan combined with the Devil Compel makes him tell his truth.  </p>
<p>This story is AU early season 2.  While this idea was still possible.  </p>
<p>Every time I rewatch the show I'm struck by the oddness of Dan seeing Lucifer at Trixie's school.  I'm sure it's just meant to be an 'assessing gaze' and a 'wtf are you doing with my wife and kid, you weirdo' look.  But Lucifer has this intense disdain for him back (the other actor playing Dan is more deserving of this IMO, Kevin's version is way more sympathetic).  Anyway, I thought I'd give this moment the fanfic treatment.  It's bugged me a few years, I finally wrote it.  Enjoy.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lucifer liked The Detective. She was fascinating. She didn't react to his Dad-Given Gifts. She was impressed by neither his visage nor his overabundance of riches. This was a new and interesting phenomena, refreshing and titillating. After a year of working together his initial positive assessment had developed to a true friendship. He admired her quest for justice and found working with her challenging and fun. After countless Millennia in Hell, 'fun' was a nice change. She was also very attractive.</p>
<p>Her only faults; that she continued to refuse to sleep with him, her Spawn that diverted her energy away from her work and her absolute douche of an ex-husband.</p>
<p>Lucifer tolerated The Detective's offspring. He tolerated the stickiness, the discordant high-pitched squeals of his name and the creases in the line of his clothes when she crushed the fabric. In her favor she was adept at following instruction and while slow, was conscientiously able to get two olives to lie in perfect parallel on a cocktail stick.</p>
<p>Lucifer loathed The Detective's douche of an ex-husband. Daniel. Dan. The Douche.</p>
<p>The reasons were numerous. To list a few; The Douche had dismissed his good friend Delilah's death as a simple drug related shooting when The Detective and Lucifer himself had proven otherwise. The Douche never said sorry about his earlier accusations and misjudgment at the resolution of that case. The Douche argued with The Detective in front of their offspring. Dan was dismissive of The Detective's findings when they were not in alignment with his own investigative outcomes. He was guilty of gas-lighting The Detective for months while she had been nothing but professional in her reaction to the investigation of dirty cops. Had numerous times displayed disregard for her investigation into the dirty dealings of her fellow cops. Had urged her to stop her investigation in the dirty cops, despite them being dirty cops. He <em>was</em> a dirty cop. Lucifer hated that The Douche continued to work in the same department and station as The Detective.</p>
<p>Lucifer <em>really</em> hated that despite being discovered as being a dirty cop and gas-lighter, The Douche continued to work in the same Department!</p>
<p>Dan had broken The Detective's heart enough for her to have to live in her Mothers house. He had broken her heart again by dumping her via text message.</p>
<p>He had broken <em>her</em> heart.</p>
<p>He had broken his offspring's heart by being a douche of a Father. He had missed dinners, school events and even Beatrice's birthday once.</p>
<p>For no other reason than he was a Douche, Lucifer hated him.</p>
<p>Lucifer hated that The Douche never looked him in the eye. He hated that The Douche looked at him as if he were unworthy. Lucifer always felt conversations had were between The Douche and his left cheek, not with him. He even hated him because Maze hated him.</p>
<p>He hated that The Douche would rather go surfing on his day off than answer his phone and come and pick up his daughter.  Beatrice, who was currently at Lux assisting the bartenders and cocktail waitresses with prepping the garnishes.  All while her Mother was carrying our more admirable tasks like finding a serial killer!</p>
<p>Lucifer loathed Dan The Douche Espinoza. The literal and figurative 'thorn' in his side.</p>
<p>Oh and <em>if</em> today of all days there was a random health inspection of Lux and he had to close down Lux for having an underage person working?  Lucifer would make The Douche pay for all profits lost!</p>
<p>- - -</p>
<p>Finally, after <em>three</em> hours of attempted calls and texts there had been a reply. The man had eventually dragged his sorry ass to Lux. When Lucifer finally looked at The Douche, Lucifer had the even greater displeasure of guiding the man straight to his Penthouse. While there was no suggestion of alcohol, Lucifer had enough experience with recreational pharmaceuticals to detect Benzo's when he saw it. He had enough respect for young Beatrice that he would assist in preventing her from experiencing <em>this</em> aspect of her douche of a dad.</p>
<p>The Douche had been too wasted to even get as far as the settee and was instead at the bar. His elbows on the counter and face in his hands the only thing holding the man up from face planting into the marble counter top. He was literally holding his own head up. After a moment he ran his hands through his hair and sat up.</p>
<p>“Thanks, Man. I just need a minute and I'll call an Uber.” Dan looked up at the bar, he could see Lucifer in the mirror. He looked angry with him. Dan's shoulder slumped. He had a great deal of lifelong experience of people being endlessly disappointed in him and very few moments of happiness. Dan closed his eyes and gave in to a moment recollection of seeing that light, remembering better times. Even for just a few seconds it soothed more than the 4 mg of Ativan.</p>
<p>“Daniel, Dan, ...Douche!”</p>
<p>He looked up into the mirror. '<em>Yes, still angry'</em>. Dan couldn't help smiling. Lucifer pretended not to care, but Dan knew his attitude now was purely because of Chloe. Dan was glad that Chloe had someone that had her back.</p>
<p>“I said look at me!”</p>
<p>Dan sighed and with one last half smile and look in the mirror, he turned to face the devil man.</p>
<p>Like always, Lucifer saw the flinches and micro twitches. The eyes that darted their gaze around his face to settle, this time at the apple of his right cheek. Perhaps a regular human would see it as examination or eyes focusing or nearsightedness but Lucifer could see the well practiced hiding of the man's revulsion under a veneer of polite blandness. When would people understand that no one could <em>lie</em> to him?</p>
<p>“Why didn't you answer your phone?” Lucifer eyed the man. “You should lay off the downers, ...they are obviously not to your suiting. Or rather, are they the inevitable after effect of some <em>other</em> vice? Whatever it is, you need to get your shit together.”</p>
<p>Dan stood up. “What the fuck, man? It's my day off are you seriously going to rag on me for not answering my phone on my day off?”</p>
<p><em>'It's his day off, he'll be surfing. I've called and left a message he will come pick up Trixie.'</em> The Detective had said five hours ago, rolling her eyes as she had said it. For the last three she had been unavailable also. But at least she had texted to say why.</p>
<p>“I'm shocked you didn't drown, Daniel. It doesn't matter that it is your day off, you are still a Father. Your daughter needed you.”</p>
<p>Dan blinked slowly then narrowed his eyes. As always Lucifer Fucking Morningstar made hardly any sense. But how dare he talk about Trixie as if she wasn't the best and now <em>only</em> bright part of his world? As if he wouldn't walk over broken glass bare foot for her? He had nothing left and soon he would lose her too. And on top of that this utter Ass was <em>shouting</em> at him?</p>
<p>“You have no fucking idea what it is like to have a child. You have no right to preach to me about how to raise my daughter!”</p>
<p>“Currently I have every right. She has been in my club for the last four and a half hours while her Mother has been working desperately to catch a murderer. And what have you been doing? Surfing and drugs?”</p>
<p>Dan grimaced as he parsed that sentence a moment then, ...laughed. “I gotta sit down. I've just had the WORST day of my fucking, God-Damned <em>fucked</em> up life. After the shittiest month and you, Mr 'I'm a fucking Millionaire, all I do all day is fuck-around and drink and pretend to be a cop' lectures me about fucking surfing!” Dan chuckled a few more times, dry ironic laughs that did nothing but make the back of his throat burn as he tried not to cry from the joke of it all. “10 minutes. I'll be outta your hair, I doubt you'll ever see me again.”</p>
<p>Dan struggled a moment to take his phone out of his pocket to load up the Uber app but everything was fuzzy and indistinct. He could see the phone and the shape of the Apps, but nothing was focused. He blinked strongly a few times but it was still fuzzy. He would have thrown it at the frustration, but this will likely be the last phone he would ever afford. He put his head in his hands and tried to get his wildly beating heart rate under control. Fuck Lucifer fucking Morningstar.</p>
<p>“Don't turn away from me!” Lucifer walked the short distance to the asshole at his bar and grabbed his right forearm. “And don't turn away from me when I'm talking to you.” Lucifer didn't expect the man to crumple, moving to protect his arm. A suspicion took over and a moment later the material of the shirt was torn away, proving Lucifer right. He took a step back after looking at the bruising. “IV? What, are you doing Speed? Then downers?”</p>
<p>“You are going to pay for that.”</p>
<p>“I highly doubt that you could even stand up again right now, let alone fight me.”</p>
<p>“No, Mr Millionaire MorningAss-star. You are going to buy me a new shirt! Now, for fucks sake. Before you go breaking any more of my stuff. What the hell is <em>wrong</em> with you? Cause man, I gotta tell ya, for the first two minutes I was thinking 'Wow, that's nice, I can sit down for a couple minutes before I call an Uber after my super shit day.' And after that it's been all accusations and shouting at me. All today, on my shit-tastic day.” Dan shook his head and looked up to the ceiling. “Was it some thing I did in a past life?” He said wondering aloud. Dan looked back to the devil man and shook his head then looked back down to the marble. It was nice and cool to the touch and his face was hot and and he was trying not to cry. Anyone who said shouting was cathartic was an idiot. It didn't make your problems go away, it just made you look like more of a fool and give you a sore throat.</p>
<p>“You're a mess.”</p>
<p>“Yep” Dan shook his head and giggled. “Emphasis on the 'yep'.” He turned his phone around and yes, still fuzzy. He put his head down on the no doubt expensive marble. <em>'This is the closest you will ever get to marble again in your life. You'll be homeless in a month. Hmm, do they still use marble slabs in the morgue?'</em> He thought to himself.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“I said '<em>Yep</em>'”</p>
<p>“No, what was that about marble morgues?”</p>
<p>Dan hadn't thought that he had said that aloud. These drugs were stronger than he thought. He shook his head again. Pity they hadn't worked like this earlier in the day when they had irradiated his brain. Dan thought he could sleep now, <em>'would have been nice to have slept through the test earlier'</em>.</p>
<p>“You are a complete mess, Douche. You can't let your daughter see you like this.”</p>
<p>“Hmm, Trixie can use my phone and call an Uber...” He remembered standing up. The next moment he was lying down on a shockingly comfortable lounge. <em>'It's nice to not have your feet hang over the arm rest because you are too tall'</em>. “Huh? What happened?”</p>
<p>“You passed out.”</p>
<p>“Hmm. What time is it?”</p>
<p>“After 5 pm.”</p>
<p>Dan tried to do do the calculations. The test was at one. He couldn't eat after 9. The doctors told him the results at three thirty. Then he sat in the hospital chapel. Only because it was quiet and empty. He'd unlocked his phone at 4:15 and took an Uber to Lux. He thought he fell asleep during the ride. What was he counting? Oh yeah he was hungry. Dan closed his eyes.</p>
<p>Something wasn't right. Daniel wasn't behaving in the usual way. For anyone, not just The Douche.</p>
<p>“Hmm, do you have a therapist?” Dan asked, eyes closed.</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“'Cause this couch should be in a therapists office.”</p>
<p>“That makes absolutely no sense.” Lucifer said to himself. He knew it was to himself because The Douche didn't say anything to that statement and instead just kept talking with his eyes closed.</p>
<p>“When you are a millionaire, ...and you go to a therapist and say 'I'm the Devil', ...or some shit like that.  Do they just bill you? ...And say, 'See you next Tuesday.' And next Tuesday, do you say 'I'm the Devil' again? Then they bill you again and say 'see you next Wednesday – I can't see you Tuesday, I'll be at the spa spending the money you gave me last Tuesday?” The Douche started chuckling. “I always wanted to know stuff like that.”</p>
<p>"What in the Hell is wrong with you, Douche?”</p>
<p>Dan laughed. “Nothing, absolutely fucking nothing ...And everything.” Then he passed out again.</p>
<p>- - -</p>
<p>Dan woke up slowly, flinching and closing his eyes tight when the out of focus image of the devil man standing over him made him more aware of his surroundings.</p>
<p>“You need to stop with the drugs, Daniel. Of all people to say that, The Devil saying that, is something.” Lucifer handed the man a glass of orange juice, but when he continued to groan and lay back on the settee, Lucifer rolled his eyes heavenward before easing one hand under the idiots head and bringing the glass to his lips.</p>
<p>Dan thought it seemed about right that a millionaire's orange juice would taste like a million dollars. Perhaps each individual orange had been massaged like a Wagyu cow before being pressed with a juicer made of gold. Oh, his head hurt. He raised a shaky hand up to support the glass and drank the last of the syrupy goodness. “I've never done drugs in my life. After today, I honestly can say I don't see the appeal. At all.” He sat up slowly and took a deep breath before leaning back against the couch and closing his eyes again. “I told them I didn't need two tablets.” He said more to himself than the devil man.</p>
<p>Lucifer looked at the douche on his sofa and the feeling returned that something was terribly wrong. “Where <em>were</em> you today if you were not surfing?” Lucifer asked in the end.</p>
<p><em>'He is a devilman, but he is also an angelman'</em>, Dan thought as he saw the image of the two great wings glowing either side of the man. It was impossible for Dan to be scared of the, obviously damaged, man when he also had the capacity for kindness and caring. Trixie loved him and she was a good judge of character. Dan focused on the image of the man's left wing, each feather more brilliant and glorious than the next. From the longest to the tiniest at the ridge of the wing. Dan sighed. His life was completely fucked. There was no point not telling Lucifer about it. Maybe it'll give the man a laugh. Someone should be happy.</p>
<p>“Do you remember two months ago when I came here to warn you about Malcolm Graham wanting to kill you?” Dan shifted focus momentarily to the man's eyes. They burned. Dan often wondered what trauma Lucifer must have endured to display such a monstrous visage. Then, Dan would remember that it was nothing but folly to give his visions meaning. They were as meaningless as Thursdays and fourteens. Although, Dan <em>had</em> been proven right about Malcolm Graham being a complete and total psychopath. Malcolm had appeared rotten before Dan had shot him and after the coma was even more fetid and reeked evil with every movement. In the end all that he had sacrificed to hide <em>why</em> he had shot Malcolm to protect Chloe had been a waste. A complete and utter waste of time, energy and worry. Dan had lost so much during his life hiding how damaged he was. But it all didn't matter now. Anymore...</p>
<p>Dan's focus drifted to the man's cheek, he was less burnt there before the draw of the glowing wings again captured his focus. “He kidnapped me and had me tied up in his basement for two days. I don't do well without food...” <em>That</em> is what was wrong. “Sorry, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten since this morning. Sorry for passing out on you again.” Dan rubbed his hands over his face and tilted his head back again.</p>
<p>“Here.”</p>
<p>Dan looked back up, Lucifer had placed a perfectly ordinary looking bottle of orange juice on the table along with a bowl of candy. Dan took a handful and chewed and swallowed the mouth full of the gummies. Fuck the carb count today. Fuck the whole day actually.</p>
<p>“Thanks.” He chewed a few more mouthfuls before he started to feel lucid again. Perhaps it hadn't all been the Ativan's fault? Dan had always thrived on small frequent meals. Given the amount of exercise he did and his muscle mass, he never seemed to have enough in reserves for days like today. “I passed out after I saw you that night. Then again outside the club. Woke up in an ER. Anyway, together with the whole I shot Malcolm in the first place and then the stolen evidence... Well I ended up with mandatory counseling. Which wouldn't have been so bad, been there done <em>that</em> before. But someone, somewhere, must have done a deep dive into my files from when I was a kid in another state and all of a sudden my bullshit Prosopagnosia and Undefined Synesthesia has now been relabeled as an even more bullshit Schizoaffective something or other. They gave me no choice but to have a brain scan, just in case it was cancer or some other defect they could see.”</p>
<p>Dan reached forward to grab another handful of the candy.</p>
<p>“So today I had the great pleasure of having my brain irradiated. Being told I have no choice but to essentially lose my job, to hand in my gun and badge tomorrow. <em>And</em> I have been shouted at, by you, because I had to have my phone turned off while in the hospital.” Dan focused back up at the man's right cheek this time. “You know man, I really wish I <em>had</em> just been surfing. It has been a really, really shit day.”</p>
<p>Lucifer <em>knew</em> Daniel was a Douche, but he had never had a suspicion that Daniel was <em>mad</em>. That <em>did</em> seem crazy. Perhaps someone at the department was using any excuse to get him out of the way? Lucifer may not understand the medical terms the man spoke of but he did speak Greek.  Ancient, modern and <em>all</em> dialects in between. He supposed he understood what prosopagnosia was. Face non-knowledge. But he had no practical knowledge as to what it meant.</p>
<p>“What do you mean by not-knowing faces?”</p>
<p>Dan chuckled. “Oh I <em>know</em> faces. That was always bullshit. But if the shoe fits, you know?” Dan poured a glass of juice. He couldn't believe that the 'food of the gods' he had earlier was from the 'Simply Orange' juice brand! “You know how some people can simply...,” Dan smirked while taking a sip of the juice. It was still delicious despite all the sweet gummies, “tell that someone is lying? Or take one look at a person and know they are an alcoholic? Put together the blood shot eyes, skin color, appearance of veins, teeth...” Dan looked up to see the devil man nodding. “Well I do that, but before I even <em>think</em> about it all I just interpret that as various levels of, ...monsterousness. Ever since I was a kid.”</p>
<p>Lucifer let out a fast quick laugh of incredulity. “Monsterousness. That's...” Preposterous. “There is no way that you could be a police officer if you cannot identify people...”</p>
<p>“Oh it's only if I'm looking directly at them.” Dan shrugged. Everything was fucked. He'd likely be living in his car in a months time. He didn't care anymore if people knew. They were all going to find out tomorrow anyway when everything became official. “I see what people really look like in reflection, through glass, in photos and on video, it's never effected my work. Except having to prove harder that some people are evil despite the lack of evidence. That gets old fast, having to let the bad eggs go because of lack of evidence and no one to talk about what I see. Always having to talk about intuition when I <em>know,</em> ...And it's not like their faces <em>ever</em> change to me, people always look like they always look when I see 'em. Oh and it's only the damaged, bad and evil people that look deformed or like monsters. Sometimes I see the very good people too. They are always nice and shiny. Gets hard to live with the glow all the time, though.” Dan chuckled wryly again.</p>
<p>Lucifer frowned. The more the man talked, the madder he sounded. Yet he would never have suspected it. Lucifer imagined it must be exhausting hiding this, ...illness for so long. “So what do you see, when you see me?” Lucifer smirked. Dan would likely soil himself, like so many humans were prone to do, if he actually SAW him.</p>
<p>Dan's eyes danced over his face in the way Lucifer loathed before settling this time on his chin. “You don't look like the devil. Just burned. Very burned. You don't have horns or a tail, if <em>that's</em> what you're asking.” Dan had always interpreted the burning to mean Lucifer had been terribly hurt. A terrible awful soul deep hurting. It was so horrible in a sympathetic rather than monstrous way. To Dan, the man's face left him feeling terribly sad rather than scared. In the past, damaged faces in this way, had always been symbolic of terrible abuse and self hatred. It was best to focus on the less burned areas of his cheeks and chin. To not focus on the lack of hair and obvious whole-body soul deep pain. Dan tried not to give meaning to what he saw, yet time and time again he found he couldn't help himself doing so.</p>
<p>Lucifer took a step forward. “What do my eyes look like?” Dan's eyes darted to his, Dan flinched very slightly before his line of sight went back to his chin.</p>
<p>“Burning, red. I'm sure in some circumstances it would be very frightening.” Dan drank more juice.</p>
<p>Lucifer sat down on the chair. “If you know what I look like, why are you not afraid of me?”</p>
<p>Dan chuckled. “It's hard to be scared of anyone that has wings like you do. I figure it's my brains way of balancing you out.”</p>
<p>“Wings?” Lucifer asked incredulously. </p>
<p>“Yeah, man.  They are fluffy and the purest white and if they were real, I'd have no idea how you'd fit through a door way. ” Dan looked to the areas next to the man.</p>
<p>“Though the way they move through your clothes... oh why bother describing what I see. I'm just fucking crazy, right?”</p>
<p>“What are you talking about? I cut off my wings. I burned them.” Lucifer said, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder and check.</p>
<p>Dan looked at the devil man. Wings still apparent, moving up and down slightly with every breath the man took, sliding through the sofa and coffee table and completely unimpeded by the solid chair. Dan smirked. His visions were so stupid. And ridiculous. But they had always, always been consistent. There was no way that anyone claiming to be evil or the devil could carry such incandescently glorious wings like that. Dan figured it was symbolic that the man was truly fucked up psychologically, maybe even as much as he was. To be so burned and feel so ugly, yet be so <em>beautiful</em>... But who was Dan to judge fucked-up-edness? Like Dan wasn't the biggest psychological fuck up in the room? Devil/Angel man included.</p>
<p>“Nah, man. Ya still got your wings. All white and fluffy.”</p>
<p>“I am <em>not, </em>...fluffy. I'm The Devil.”  Lucifer insisted.</p>
<p>“Sure man, what ever you say. I <em>see</em> you.” Dan leaned back with his glass of juice and watched as the man growled and stood up, striding to the ever stocked bar and started to pour a drink before simply drinking deeply from the bottle.</p>
<p>Lucifer turned back to the man sitting on his sofa and scowled. There was no way possible that Dan could see him. Lucifer checked his reflection in the mirror behind the bottles. He was looking his perfectly coiffed self with not a hair out of place. It wasn't possible that The Douche could just see demons in everyday faces. Demons.</p>
<p>“What do you see when you look at Mazikeen?”</p>
<p>“Your bartender, Maze?”</p>
<p>“She is <em>more</em> than a simple bartender.”</p>
<p>Dan grinned. Yeah, he'd figured that one out quickly. “Her eyebrow is scared. I interpret that as the whole side of her face being damaged. Now she <em>is</em> scary. But she has a kind eye when she looks at Trixie...”</p>
<p>“A kind eye?” Lucifer asked incredulously. “A kind eye?” He repeated more loudly. He drank more from the bottle.</p>
<p>Dan had been convinced to do that once in college, to drink a vast amount of spirits, he had since vowed never again. He hadn't had any experience with alcohol before then and didn't know how it would effect him and his stupid brain. It was why he pretty much stuck with low alcohol beer these days when in public. Whatever momentary benefit of feeling free was not worth the terrible visions and associated meanings that his thoughts would be racked with. It wasn't worth it to <em>hear</em> what people thought. To <em>imagine</em> he heard what people thought. To <em>know</em> that it was just imagination. Dan shook his head. He had limited himself to no more than a sip on the rarest of occasions. Not enough to inebriate. Had vowed never, ever, to be drunk in public again. Being on the force he had learned how to fake it to be part of the team. He was always 'the driver' or he would defer to his 'training regime'.</p>
<p>“She has a kind eye.” Dan indicated his right eye.</p>
<p>“Well, Douche, what about her other one?”</p>
<p>Dan sighed. Glassy eyes or eyes covered in a milky film had always indicated that the person had seen something that they wished to forget. Or wished not to see. He saw it often in women whose partners were abusers. In soldiers who had seen battle and to a lesser extent in health care workers who tended to have a slight glaze over their eyes and skin on their faces the texture of dried mud. Able to emote but stilted. It had frightened him when he was nine and had broken his arm, until he had realized that how the nurses looked when talking with him and other patients was not how they looked when talking among themselves. He imagined that the outward display of hardening their faces was a reflection of how they hardened their hearts in order to get through the day. Professional, personable, carers who at the end of the day couldn't really give their full emotional energy to care or risk burn-out. It had taken until the last hour at the hospital to understand the 'rockiest people' felt the most and needed to protect themselves the most.</p>
<p>He had since seen it numerous times when fellow police officers were tasked with alerting people to their loved-ones deaths. Dan wondered at those time what he looked like when it was up to him to share the bad news.</p>
<p>“I think she must have seen some shit when she was younger. When I look at her she only has one healthy eye. Half her face...” There was no point describing what he saw. It was just an image. It wasn't real and it would offend her to be talking about her without being present. Dan frowned. He was getting hungry again and would need something more than a few handfuls of candy. He reached into his pocket and took out his phone, still fuzzy. He shook his head. “I gotta collect Trix, get some food and get home. Last night before the gallows and all that.”</p>
<p>“Wait.” Lucifer quickly sent off a text to his favorite Demon and for the first time in a long time without deliberately trying to instill fear into a criminal let his glamour fade. He looked into the mirror behind the bar. He was all Devil now. He turned back to the man on his sofa who simply looked up, ...and behaved completely normally. Daniel only gave away an idea of what he was seeing with the familiar almost invisible micro-flinch and then stared fixedly at his cheek.</p>
<p>“What, man?” Dan thought Lucifer must really hate him now he knew he was crazy. The beautiful glowing wings had disappeared.</p>
<p>“I've asked Mazikeen to bring up a sandwich before you go. You should eat something.” With each spoken word, Lucifer's unease became more acute. It was impossible for a human to gaze upon him and not be terrified. This man was behaving against the laws of Nature <em>and</em> the Universe. Lucifer would not stand for it. Had Father sent him?</p>
<p>The 'ding' of the elevator alerted them to a visitor and as expected Mazikeen of the Lilim in all her Demon glory stalked out into the penthouse. Holding a plate with the promised sandwich and grinning wildly with an expression of unholy glee at the imagined terror she thought was soon to be unleashed. She didn't like The Douche either and this would be <em>fun</em>.</p>
<p>“Thank you so much, Maze. I can't thank you enough for watching over Trixie.”</p>
<p>Maze handed over the plate and looked to Lucifer with the biggest look of disappointment that Lucifer had seen since the time he had stopped her from beheading Squee for 'being a whiny little bitch again'.</p>
<p>“What the <em>fuck</em> is going on here?” Maze asked looking between The King of Hell and The Douche on the sofa.</p>
<p>Lucifer shrugged.</p>
<p>Maze sat down on the arm of the chair making sure her 'pretty' side was facing Dan. He didn't flinch, any more than usual, when he looked up.</p>
<p>“Sorry, I haven't eaten since nine this morning. It's been a real bitch of a day.”</p>
<p>“Sure.” She grimaced and watched him warily as he continued to eat the cheese sandwich. It was all they had fixings for in the staff room.</p>
<p>Lucifer indicated for her to follow him into his bed room. With lowered voice they spoke.</p>
<p><strong>“He isn't from Hell, did your Father send him?”</strong> She asked her King in Lilim.</p>
<p>
  <strong>“I don't know.”</strong>
</p>
<p><strong>“<em>You</em> don't know?”</strong> Maze scowled. Incredulous at the situation.</p>
<p><strong>“I have not seen this before. Know your place, Mazikeen.”</strong> Maze lowered her eyes and nodded her head. Lucifer clenched his jaw and opened and closed his fists as he thought of what to do with this information. <strong>“The only ones I have heard of before, who can see behind the veil, have been Prophets. But there hasn't been a Prophet in over Two Thousand years. And I never saw them, just heard of them. You know how fanciful humans get with their little tales. With all their 'Saints'. I don't communicate with upstairs, it is difficult to know the fact from the fiction.”</strong> Lucifer imagined that what a Prophet saw could easily be interpreted by others in this day and age as insanity. Dan wouldn't even know what a real Prophet could do, he wouldn't even be able to recognize it in himself.</p>
<p>Lucifer and Mazikeen both peered around the stone of the wall and looked at the man on the sofa. He was very ordinary looking for a Prophet. With their enhanced sense of hearing they both heard Dan mumble under his breath, 'Fuck my diet.' then reach forward to pick up the candy bowl and continue on to eat the gummies like a starving man.</p>
<p>
  <strong>“Do you think your Father sent him to help find your Mother?”</strong>
</p>
<p>Lucifer's eyes burned brighter at the suggestion. The timing would certainly make sense. He and Amenadiel had been searching for weeks for Mother without success. Amenadiel would agree that if this was the sort of thing Father would do, now would be the time to do it.</p>
<p>Lucifer smiled.</p>
<p>- - -</p>
<p>Lucifer imagined it would be difficult to prove to Dan that he was in fact The Devil with a capital 'The'. But in the end it was as simple as restoring his glamour and he and Dan going down to Lux and seeing Trixie.  Her tongue peeking out in careful concentration, cutting lime wedges with over size plastic gloves and a paring knife. She was in a booth with several of his staff and Hugo, a new hire behind the bar was intently watching her. Dan's quick in-drawn breath had Lucifer asking “What do you see?”</p>
<p>“Him. Never let him be alone with Trix, with any child.”</p>
<p>It had been simple after that of compelling Hugo to follow them to the empty garage. For Lucifer to ask what Hugo desired and to convince Dan that when he saw his wings disappear was when others saw The Devil. Dan didn't even flinch that much when Hugo started screaming.</p>
<p>Oddly, Dan was still not afraid of him. When asked, Dan had shrugged and said, “People like him deserve to be tortured. If someone has to do it, it may as well be you, Lucifer.”</p>
<p>Soon after Uniformed Officers collected the ex-bartender that was 'found mid-breakdown' near Lux. The Detective collected her happy offspring and Lucifer called the best therapist in Beverly Hills, Dr Linda Martin.  It didn't take long to put together a plan to ensure Detective Espinoza would continue in his job. After all it would be discrimination if the LAPD denied him his rights simply because he had non-defined synesthesia and "an ill-informed state-paid psychologist who didn't know their DSM-5 from their elbow" as Linda had joked.</p>
<p>The doctor shined. Only Chloe Decker had ever shined brighter. Bright as a lighthouse beacon.</p>
<p>Dan found it easy to trust Dr Martin, a woman that shined brightly through her stoic, muddy cracks. To trust with his 'symptoms', ...to a point. As always replacing 'seeing oddness and monsters', with 'seeing colors'. He didn't have to tell everybody, <em>everything</em>. He looked to Lucifer, who was leaning against the bar watching, burning eyes and white fluffy wings and Dan grinned.</p>
<p>The Devil smiled as well. He had found a Prophet. And it wasn't <em>that</em> bad that it was Dan Espinoza. Just when his Mother had escaped Hell. Just when he needed all the help he could get.</p>
<p>'Thanks Dad.'</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lucifer shrugged his shoulders, his back itched terribly.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So, what did you think?</p>
<p>I'm still struggling with the whole posting to AO3 thing, this time I lost my returns, italics and Bolds.   I'll get there, ...eventually.  Edited March 2021 - I reckon I figured it out!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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